Asheville live music best bets: Ricky Skaggs, 'Asheville Fiddler,' Ian Noe

Ricky Skaggs gave a slight laugh when he was asked if he preferred to perform instrumentals or songs in which he must sing. 

“That’s a mean question,” he finally admitted. “I love playing instrumentals. I just think there’s such power and such joy in these bluegrass instrumentals that we’re playing.” 

Don’t think, though, that you won’t hear the Country Music Hall of Famer sing some of the tracks that were commonplace on FM radio in the 1980s when he and his band, Kentucky Thunder, perform at 8 p.m. April 9 at Salvage Station. 

There was a time when Skaggs’ country music career was as big as any other mainstay of the genre. He scored 20 top 10 country singles from 1981 to 1989, including monster hits like “Cajun Moon,” “Honey (Open That Door),” and “Country Boy.” 

Skaggs said he is excited about playing in Asheville again. 

“It’s been a pretty good while since we’ve played Asheville. We’ve played around the area a few times, but to play Asheville like we used to do with Bele Chere, it’s been a while,” Skaggs said. “We’ve got a new band and a new show. We’re really looking forward to seeing how the folks like it and I think they will if they like bluegrass, Gospel, and country music. We do a little bit of it all. … I love being able to walk in and out of different styles of music and never have to leave the stage. It’s really cool.” 

During the COVID-19 pandemic Skaggs focused his writing attention on bluegrass instrumentals. Skaggs, who is also a member of the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum, is one of bluegrass music’s top mandolin players and has been for decades. 

Skaggs said the current set lists have included a variety of songs, from classic bluegrass tracks to his country songs like “I Wouldn’t Change You If I Could,” “Crying My Eyes Out Over You,” and “Give Us Rain.” 

There will be plenty of chances for Kentucky Thunder’s newest members, fiddle player Bill Contreras and harmony singer Mike Rogers, to be showcased. 

“It’s good to have new ideas and new blood. We like the old blood, but we sure like having the new guys come in,” Skaggs said. “I love hearing them interpret the instrumentals that I’ve written and hearing their take on the song and how they want to play it on a certain night and it’s never the same way twice.” 

‘Asheville Fiddler’ to be celebrated 

During the COVID-19 pandemic local fiddler John Duncan and several other musicians lived in what he describes as, “a music house,” in West Asheville. 

Days were spent playing, collaborating, and making. Dozens of songs were recorded and Duncan eventually found a combination of tracks he wanted to release. His album, “Asheville Fiddler,” was released in February and he will celebrate its release with a 7:30 p.m. show on Sunday, April 10 at Isis Music Hall. 

Duncan worked with several of Asheville’s top young acoustic musicians.  

“Getting to do what was, essentially, a pandemic album with them was really exciting,” said Duncan, who recently took first place at the Gordon County Fiddler’s Convention in Calhoun, Georgia. “Working with them was so inspiring and I don’t think the music would have turned out like it did if it wasn’t for them.” 

Many of the performers on the album will be on hand for the Isis show, he said. 

All but one of the songs on “Asheville Fiddler” are part of the public domain, Duncan said. 

“The songs I chose are ones that don’t come up very often,” he said. “My whole approach to the record was to present really strong melodies and really clear tone-ful recordings of these songs where the focus was on really, groovy rhythm that would make people really want to move. There aren’t a lot of highly improvisational moments on the record, it’s more of a presentation of beautiful melodies.” 

Duncan was born in Asheville and has been a working musician in town since 2005. He has performed with Aubrey Eisenman and the Clydes, Buncombe Turnpike, Nashville’s Kristy Cox and others. He even played gigs as the second fiddle player with Hall of Famer Bobby Hicks (of Kentucky Thunder fame) for several shows.  

Noe’s album release show at The Grey Eagle 

Kentucky-native Ian Noe returns to Asheville with a new batch of music. Noe recently released “River Fools and Mountain Saints,” an album that has garnered critical praise already. 

Noe will perform tracks from his second album during his 9 p.m. show April 9 at The Grey Eagle. 

His new album began with its title’s name and, according to a Wall Street Journal story, “evolved into a cycle of acute portraits of regional characters—often inebriated, some musically fixated, many inclined toward impulsive acts, all facing decline of their towns, ecological debacle and overwhelming natural disasters.”